eye cloud, I believe eye pop & maybe blind. HELP!!

I have one Oscar. I have had him about 9 to 10 months now. He was only about 2 in. when I bought him.

Long story short he has had severe eye cloud for at least 2 months now or so. Also, I believe he has eye pop. Both his eyes have been very cloudy for few months and then they started to grow outward as if they had a growth and/or swollen and then the next day one eye was much smaller.

I kept going to my local fish place and taking all the advice they gave but nothing as worked yet.

He is pretty blind now to where I have to splash a lot to get him to the top to where I can feed by hand. But... now he is not eating and staying at the bottom of the tank since I started the Melafix treatment...

I hate to see him like this and HELP would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!!!

Okay, first thing, have you been testing your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? Also, what do you feed your fish on? If the fish behaving in a manner that would lead you to believe that it is still has sight? There are a number of reasons why a fishes eyes will develop this condition. If it was only one eye, it could possibly be an infection, or damage. The fact that both eyes have done it points to an infection and/or maybe nutritional problems. Poor water conditions could also cause this type of problem. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to diagnose something like this as it's not really feasible to take samples from a fishes eye like you can from skin. Please try and post a photograph again and we will try and advise what may help. There is the possibility that this is irreversible damage. I would advise you to seek professional advice from a vet in cases like this where ailments have lasted quite a few weeks.

trying to upload the picture again. It has too many pixles so I tried to resize to upload...

I test my water regularly and even seconded guest myself and had it tested by local fish place. Even they were suprised how clean the water is... sorry, dont have exact numbers right now...

I only feed him feeder fish once and that was the last time he would not eat anything else. Regular diet is pellets, which he was been eating by hand from me until I started this latest treatment of melafix (which I strongly believe is the reason he is not eating lately and breathing heavily, also it has clouded the water a lot; but of course I'm not an expert and in need of help).

With this latest treatment of Melafix it has cured about 75% of his right eye but his left is still very bad... I believe he can see somewhat, mainly out of his right eye but the cloudiness in the left I think has pretty much blinded that eye (hopefully only temp.).

A little history may help... when I first got him I took adive from others that had Oscars and those at the pet store rather than looking up myself.. anyways, I also had to Jack Dempseys with my Oscar. As they grey together the Jack D's constantly would punk Oscar but, by listening to others, I thought this would only be temporary, obviously I was wrong. I eventualy ended up giving the Jacks away because they got very big and stressed him out so bad that he stayed floating in the top corner of the tank.

since then I have done treatments, etc. his eyes have never fully recovered. One person said that the severity of the left eye may have been done by the Jacks...

If your not already, instead of attaching the pic(if that's not working...) upload it to photobucket and copy the IMG code. I don't think the JD's would make the eye cloudy. I can imagine them causing problems with the eye, but not cloudiness. It would be nice if [you could tell us the excact water parameters too. The ph would also be helpful.

Okay, thanks for posting your water readings, that is quite helpful. Ammonia is okay, nitrate is about as high as you want it to get, nitrite is rather high, this should be Zero as well. Could you give us some information on what size tank you've got and what sort of filtration you are using? Also, could you tell us how you have been cleaning your tank and filtration? I would advise you to stop feeding, or limit the amount of food you give your Oscar. Until the nitrites are Zero, we want to try and reduce the amount of waste going into the water. How long has your tank then set up for? The problem is, medications don't work very well when water conditions are poor.

Regarding your Oscars eye, it is quite possible that has been damaged by another fish, this does happen. Cloudy eyes can certainly be the result of trauma. However, depending on how you have been cleaning your tank, this could very well be down to poor water conditions I am afraid. Is the fish still not eating and breathing heavily? Have you checked to make sure that you have got enough surface agitation where the water comes back into the tank? This creates bubbles which in turn creates oxygen in the water.

My old room mate had about 6 or 7 Oscars, several silver dollers, etc. in his tank so when I began my tank in Feb of this year, I listed to him and did not really do any of my own research..

I have a 55 gallon tank. I did have the Oscar with 2 JD's until about 2 months ago when I gave them away because the Oscar's health seemed to continue to decline and they literaly punked him so I gave them away...

I just did a 30% water change after finding out those readings. I use a regular bucket and vacuum hose thing at each water changing. I have a 'back-pack' filter, not sure the exact name. It was the one that came with the tank (I bought the sarter kit package for the 55 gal tank).

As I said before, I was given wrong information, i have since learned, and so I have been feeding the Oscar once to twice daily, the pellets; thats obviously the reason for the high levels of nitrate, etc. I will cut down on the feedings now.

The other day I got 3 small silver dollers and 2 small snails so those are now in the tank with the Oscar and the sucker fish.

Today I purchased 2 live plants to help with the oxygen. Also after I changed the water today I left the water level about an inch low to help create more air bubbles coming in...

After reading your response I hope that it is something as simple as the water quality and with a few more consistant water changes will fix the problem...

I had started to type a reply to your first post at night, but until I finished the thread had been updated 2 or 3 times, so I gave up on it lol. Was suspecting poor water quality, then you said the water was tested to be fine, but from your readings now, mainly the nitrites are alarming as Penn said already.

You got good advice, I only wanted to add that you might want to think about adding a second filter. Could just be an internal one, they need to be cleaned more often but that's done fast, and that way you get quite some waste out of the system, plus they generate a significant water current with helps as well with oxygen. I don't think two live plants will make much of a difference since the amount of oxygen they produce depends on the lighting and the kind of plant (those with many small leaves are the ones that produce most, and also the ones that don't make it for long in an Oscar tank), plus they consume oxygen as well at night without producing any. I seem to remember that nitrites disturb the oxygen transport in the fish's bloodstream, so that's the main thing to be dealt with.

I'd recommend changing water daily for a while although it's sure lots of work. And Penn is right when saying you should stop feeding for a while since your Oscar isn't eating anyway as you said, and the others should be able to go without food for some days as well unless really tiny. It would help lots with reducing the amount of toxines building up. Once you have enough denitrifying bacteria in the tank to give you readings of zero nitrites you can slowly feed/feed more again. Expect it to take a while though. Maybe adding some stuff like StressZyme or what it's called again might speed up that process.

If I were a guy, I\'d have probably needed only 30% of the amount of words to say this